It happened 16 years ago and it was the last interview I conducted with the late Dr. Bob Vaughan in his capacity as owner of the Belleville Bulls.

Doc was the original majority owner of the Bulls and guided them from Tier II into the OHL in 1981. After more than 20 solid years at the helm of a strong OHL program that rarely missed the playoffs and captured a league playoff crown in 1999, Doc sold the franchise to wealthy Uxbridge businessman Gord Simmonds in 2004.

Doc’s last words to me in his last moments as owner of the Bulls: “I hope this new ownership group has better luck with city council than I had.”

Unfortunately, they didn’t.

From Day 1 of the Bulls’ 34-year run in the OHL, the team’s rink — Yardmen Arena — was a stumbling block for the club and the city. Sure, the Yard Barn was a great facility, but upgrades were required, sooner than later, to compete with the rapidly developing trend in arena improvements or outright replacements that were taking place at a whirlwind pace in an ever-changing OHL.

Oh sure, once in a while the city slapped a few Band-aids on the Yard Barn. And in later years successive councils ensured Bulls ownership there was a plan in place for a major renovation or maybe even a new rink, down the road.

Doc sure never saw it. Neither did Simmonds.

And, that reality factored enormously into Simmonds’ decision in 2015 to sell the Bulls to self-made multi-millionaire Michael Andlauer in Hamilton where they became the Bulldogs. Since then Belleville has spent more than $20 million on a major Yard Barn facelift to attract the AHL farm club of the NHL’s Ottawa Senators.

But, 16 years ago, when Doc sold the Bulls to Simmonds, there was a potential path the city and the new team ownership group could’ve followed that might’ve kept the OHL in Belleville, saved a longtime downtown fixture — Memorial Arena — and provided an anchor for a core revitalization program that has been kicked around Front Street since this former reporter returned to Belleville in 1991.

If that idea was ever really seriously considered, it is now long forgotten with the city’s announcement Monday a bid has been accepted by a local builder to turn Memorial Arena into some kind of commercial market/office building/apartment complex. Almost 20 years ago, however, some people believed there could’ve been a very different future for the downtown rink.

As 1999 turned into 2000, the OHL was in the middle of a major construction boom. During an ambitious six-year span, from 2000-06, five new rinks were erected to house existing OHL teams in Guelph (2000), London (2002), the Soo (2005), Kingston and Oshawa (2006) — all downtown.

It was a trend that could’ve continued in Belleville. But didn’t.

During the 11 years Simmonds owned the Bulls, he and I had numerous conversations about a potential downtown rink in Belleville, preserving the historic red-brick facade and turning Memorial Arena into a spiffy new OHL facility. The blueprint, said Simmonds, was the Soo.

If London’s palatial downtown Budweiser Gardens was the Cadillac of those five new OHL buildings, then the Soo’s facility — he maintained — was the Honda Civic. Nothing fancy, but completely practical. A more attainable, more affordable, more doable option for Belleville.

Including the cost of purchasing the land for Bud Gardens, the London project cost more than $50 million for a 9,000-seat facility to house the Knights. The Soo, conversely, spent roughly half that amount for a 5,000-seat rink now known as GFL Memorial Gardens and home to the Greyhounds.

(NOTE: Kingston’s K-Rock Centre, now the Leon’s Centre, cost $46 million to build and seats 5,600 for Frontenacs games; the Tribal Communities Centre, where the Oshawa Generals play, came with a $45 million price tag and accommodates 6,000 spectators; the Sleeman Centre, home of the Guelph Storm, was constructed for $21 and seats 4,700.)

Yes, 16 years ago, when Simmonds took over the Bulls, there was indeed a lot on the plate for Belleville city councillors to consider. A new fire hall and cop shop were already being bantered about in council chambers.

And, what about the Quinte Sports Centre-Yardmen Arena complex anyway? Many at city hall favoured simply, some day, turning it into Belleville’s main, fully-functional, one-stop recreational centre at the expense of other aging city facilities spread around town.

Unfortunately, building a new downtown rink at the site of Memorial Arena remained nothing more than a dream for some. Including the Bulls.

City councils eventually abandoned an empty, failing Memorial Arena to rot and threw all of its support behind the development of the Sports Centre. Today, it includes not only Yardmen Arena, but three other ice pads, a gymnasium, indoor track, swimming pool, meeting rooms, fitness centre and various other accoutrements.

As for accommodating the Bulls, councillors who served while Simmonds owned the team will still tell you there was a plan on the backburner to address Yardmen Arena with a major renovation sometime around 2017. By then, however, it was much too late.

Simmonds wasn’t going to wait around for a promise that might never be kept — especially with a new mayor, Taso Christopher, replacing a guy he greatly preferred, Neil Ellis — and when the Hamilton ownership group threw wads of cash his way, he didn’t say no. Goodbye Bulls.

As we know, two years after the departure of the Bulls, the city finally ponied up and spent $20-plus million for a major facelift at Yardmen Arena, mainly to attract the AHL Senators — and not much else.

For that same amount of money, almost 20 years ago, we might’ve had a beautiful downtown facility that could’ve rivalled anything in the OHL. And we wouldn’t be talking today about turning Memorial Arena into an office building.